Two miles from Hebron is the burial place of Lot, Abraham's first cousin. And a short way from Hebron is the mountain of Mambre from which the valley takes its name. And there is an oak-tree on that mountain from the time of Abraham, and this is the Saracens' name for it, the Dry Tree. And they say that it has been there since the beginning of the World, and it was fresh and bore leaves until the time that our Lord was put to death, and thenceforward it is dry, without leaves, and without fruit, for then its leaves and its fruit went from it, and from many of the trees of the world, or they decayed on the ground, and there are many of them now like that. And some of the prophets said that out of the west of the world would come a prince, who would win the Land of Promise and masses would be said for him under that tree, and then its leaves and its fruit should wax from that time forward, and through that miracle many Saracens and Jews should be turned to belief. And they hold the tree in full honour, and in constant care; and though this tree is dry it hath many virtues, for whoso carries little or much of it never falls in the falling sickness, and it hath abundance of other virtues.